After Saturday’s game, Hoke said he hasn’t heard anything from Minnesota since the meeting “nor did I want to hear anything.”

When asked about it by reporters, he also said his meeting with Minnesota lasted about an hour and was about “talking about what they have and facilities.” Asked if he liked what he heard, Hoke said, “I don’t think I heard much of anything.”

Minnesota and other possible suitors probably will be able to at least double Hoke’s $700,000 salary at SDSU for 2011. Meanwhile, speculation has swirled that Michigan soon may fire head coach Rich Rodriguez, creating an opening where Hoke served as an assistant from 1995 to 2002. If Rodriguez is fired, Hoke and Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh, a former Michigan quarterback, are likely to be mentioned as candidates to replace him.

Sterk said it was premature to say how high SDSU could go with Hoke’s salary. But a $1 million salary may be a stretch for SDSU.

Without going into specifics, Sterk said other things could be improved to make the program better and “continue the momentum” of SDSU’s first bowl-bound season since 1998.

“I think we’re in a great position on that,” he said.

Hoke is 12-12 in two season at SDSU including 8-4 this year. He has three years left on his SDSU contract and a buyout of $1.5 million.

Sterk said Hoke “let me know they (Minnesota) had called.” But Maturi did not contact Sterk beforehand to ask permission to talk to his head coach. Such permission is not required but is considered a courtesy. “Normally they will at least call,” Sterk said.

Hoke said he met with Minnesota during the season because “timing-wise it needed to be done.”

SDSU quarterback Ryan Lindley said the team wasn’t concerned about the matter.

“Coach Hoke is sitting in the locker room right now with red and black on, and that’s all we care about,” Lindley said.

Asked about public perception about his meeting with Minnesota, Hoke said “people are going to think what they think anyway so it really doesn’t matter. We were focused in on what we needed to do today, and that’s what we did.”

Bowl practices: For the first time in 12 years, SDSU will have the luxury of postseason practices. The first of 15 postseason practices comes Wednesday in preparation for the Aztecs’ almost certain berth in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl on Dec. 23 against Navy (8-3).

Much of the early bowl practices will be spent on developing young players, Hoke said.

Bowl officials have indicated the SDSU-Navy matchup is virtually certain to happen but won’t be officially announced until Dec. 5. The game made an agreement with Navy before the season that the Midshipmen would come to San Diego if they were bowl-eligible with at least six wins.

Hoke said he would be “tickled to death” to play a bowl game in San Diego.

Elsewhere in the Mountain West Conference, Texas Christian (12-0) is expected to play in the Rose Bowl or the national championship game. Utah (10-2) is expected to play in the Las Vegas Bowl, which picks first among MWC teams after the Bowl Championship Series. The Poinsettia picks next among eligible MWC teams.

Notable: Senior running back Brandon Sullivan apparently suffered a concussion in Saturday’s game. He finished with seven yards and one touchdown on three carries, all in the first half. Hoke said Sullivan didn’t remember his first-quarter 1-yard touchdown run.

--Running back Ronnie Hillman set a new Mountain West Conference record for freshman rushing yards. He passed Brigham Young’s Harvey Unga, who had 1,227 yards in 2007. Hillman now has 1,304 yards.

--SDSU ended the season without three defensive starters: Safety Dey Juan Hemmings, who missed the entire season with a ankle injury, defensive end B.J. Williams (foot) and senior middle linebacker Marcus Yarbrough (foot).The latter two have missed the last three games. Senior cornerback Jose Perez missed last week’s game with a knee injury but came off the bench to play some against UNLV. Yarbrough might return for the bowl game. Hemmings is expected to return next year.

--Senior receiver Vincent Brown moved into third place on SDSU’s all-time receiving list with 74 yards on five catches. He has 2,945 receiving yards, behind J.R. Tolver’s 3,572 and Darnay Scott’s 3,139.

--The same five players started at the same five positions on the SDSU offensive line for all 12 regular-season games this season. The last time that happened at SDSU was 2001.

--SDSU (8-4) ended the regular season having beaten one team with a winning record: Air Force, which finished 8-4. But it was the first time the Aztecs have won eight games since 1996, when SDSU finished 8-3 under head coach Ted Tollner.